Vodník
by Dorus the Walrus
Summary: The vodník clutched his greatest treasure close to his chest: a little porcelain jar that held the soul of Dr. Radek Zelenka. A "Grace Under Pressure" AU.


**Vodník**

Rodney scrambled for purchase as he struggled to keep his mouth above the water. The tips of his fingers lodged themselves into a fine groove that ran along the ceiling; it was completely decorative and any other time he'd roll his eyes at the completely useless fixture, but at the moment it was the only thing keeping him aloft. He was tired of treading water. His arms felt heavy, like someone had strapped sandbags to them, but at least they'd stop hurting. The freezing water had felt like a thousand needles pricking into his sore muscles, but he'd long since pushed the feeling from his mind. He was just numb and sleepy and Sam just wouldn't _shut up_.

He hated people who talked too much. And no, he didn't think he was being hypocritical.

He heard Sam snort with laughter at that statement. Rodney hoped she got water up her nose.

"Hey, don't go to sleep now." Sam patted his cheek, but he couldn't feel her skin. He just felt the cold water lapping against his face.

Wrenching his heavy eyelids open, he pushed out with his other arm, forcing his body up through the water. He couldn't let himself slip under. Only this time there was nowhere left to go. His face hit the ceiling; jostling him and almost making himself loose his grip. Rodney reeled back from the pain; even that slight bump made his head throb. It was like someone had stuck a knife in his eye and for a brief moment he saw white.

When the pain receded he noticed that the water was higher. When did that happen? His head was tipped back, the water gently touching the edges of his mouth, and all he could see was the bulkhead. Rodney felt someone's lips brush against his ear and heard a woman's voice whisper, "Take a deep breath, Rodney."

Rodney obeyed and felt himself slip beneath the water. He opened his eyes, even though he knew it would be too dark to see anything, but he did open them and saw Sam floating there in front of him, smiling, looking much too bright and colorful in the green, murky depths. She was going to be the last thing he would ever see and, really, it wasn't so bad. His concussed brain could have come up with something much worse than Samantha Carter.

She laughed again and the sound was as plain as day, as if they were both somewhere else, somewhere on land with air and sky and ground.

* * *

"Alright, let's get a grapple on this thing and go home."

"No, it won't work."

"Why's that?"

"It's taken on too much water. Sensors indicate even the rear compartment is completely flooded."

"… What are you telling me?"

* * *

It was freezing. Radek pulled the blankets tightly around his shoulders and buried his face into his pillow. He knew it was only a matter of time before someone contacted him, demanding he fix the environmental controls. They'd been malfunctioning all week, causing the temperature on Atlantis to plummet. But until somebody called he was going to enjoy the peace and quiet he could never seem to find anymore.

With a sigh Radek rolled onto his back, tangling himself up in his blanket like it was a cocoon. He blearily opened his eyes to see Rodney staring down at him.

"You look like shit," he said. It was all rather nonchalant.

Radek wanted to snap back: _Yes, I look like shit. I look shitty. It is because someone must be Chief Scientist since _**you** _are no longer available. Dead people do not make good scientists._

But Radek didn't say anything. He couldn't even if he wanted to. Instead he lay very, very still on his bed and tried not to breathe. They looked at each other for a long time, Rodney giving him that damned crooked smirk the whole time. It felt like hours had passed, but Radek knew it couldn't have been more than ten seconds before his communicator went off.

He turned to snatch it up, fumbling with it before putting it in his ear. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he turned back around to find Rodney gone.

"Yes?" He hoped whoever it was didn't notice the strange squeakiness of his voice.

"Dr. Zelenka, we're having trouble getting the temperature controls back online and could use some assistance."

"I will be there soon. Five minutes."

* * *

"It's no trouble, Dr. Zelenka-"

"No, no. The environmental control panel is prone to shorting out. There is always possibility that it could cause electrocution. _I_ will do it. Better me than one of you." Radek nodded resolutely. He was the Chief Scientist now, which meant he was responsible for these people. He couldn't pass off an assignment just because he was scared or it was dangerous. Not anymore, at least.

"If you insist," Miko frowned at him as she turned away, leaving him to his work. Radek turned his attention back to the panel, his muttered curses causing little puffs of cold air to rise up. He had to take off his gloves in order to do such delicate work and now his hands were freezing. A sort of bone-deep chill that he hadn't felt since Antarctica.

"Why won't you work?" He growled. His sister was absolutely convinced that any electronic device could be fixed by simply hitting it repeatedly. Perhaps he should try that next because it was obvious that nothing else was going to fix it.

He could hear footsteps behind him. "Yes?" He called out distractedly, his eyes still riveted to the crystals. The man – and it was a man by the heavy footfalls – said nothing and continued to approach. Radek felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise as the man suddenly stopped right behind him, not making a sound. He couldn't even hear him breathe. Radek shivered and turned around.

Nothing.

It was nothing. He had just imagined it. The ghost of Dr. Rodney McKay was not haunting him.

* * *

Radek shivered as he stomped down the halls, only this time it wasn't from the cold. He was terrified and he didn't even know from what. There was just this feeling in the pit of his stomach, weighing him down like a stone. It made him feel twitchy and nervous.

It was a bad dream, that was it. It had only been a week since Rodney's death; of course he was going to have nightmares. And the footsteps? There was a perfectly reasonable explanation for those too. Maybe he had imagined them, or maybe one of his scientists had entered the room only to turn around and leave when he had seen how busy he was. Just because he hadn't heard this mysterious scientist walk away didn't mean he hadn't. It was silly and childish to think that Rodney had returned from the grave to exact some sort of revenge.

Radek tried to keep his thoughts focused on the fact that ghosts do not exist and far away from the tumultuous guilt that threatened to swallow him whole every second of every day.

"Dr. Zelenka, we have a problem."

It was Dr. Weir. "Yes?"

"There has been some flooding in personnel-"

Radek took off running before she had even finished, his heart beating wildly in his chest. The word _flooding_ triggered some wild, untamed panic inside him and all he could think about was Rodney's decomposing corpse that he had left behind on the bottom of the ocean floor. It had been a week. Seven days. His body would be bloated from the water, the skin sloughing off to reveal white bone. The lividity would appear bright pink or cherry red from the cold water and lack of oxygen, although Radek didn't know what sort of pattern it would make across his skin. He was bobbing in the water with pressure all around him, so where would the blood pool? Radek supposed he could ask a biologist, but that might come off as too morbid and he didn't really want Dr. Beckett to force him into another meeting with Dr. Heightmeyer.

Radek turned a corner and saw Teyla, Ronon, and Dr. Weir hovering around Colonel Sheppard's personal quarters. He pushed his way through and saw the Colonel standing in the middle of his bedroom, hands on his hips, frowning down at the puddle of water that now cover his floor. Radek felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment. He felt stupid and childish; the water did not even reach his ankles, there was no reason for him to panic the way he had. The strange looks Dr. Weir was giving him as she slowly lowered her hand away from her communicator only confirmed this. Glancing around, Radek quickly spotted the problem. There was water leaking down one of the walls. A pipe from the room above must have burst. He tried to remember what was in that room, but his mind came up empty.

"We wouldn't happen to have a plumber, would we?" Colonel Sheppard drawled.

"I will- I will just go and find someone to fix that," Radek mumbled, slinking away and hoping no one would ask any questions. They didn't.

* * *

Radek lingered outside of the puddlejumper, leering warily at the empty compartment. Major Lorne had returned from a mission not more than an hour ago, looking sheepish. He had almost grimaced as he explained the problem; it had been obvious to Radek that he hadn't wanted to come to him with this technical issue and he didn't blame him. The last time he'd "fixed" a jumper it had resulted in two deaths. He couldn't afford to make another mistake like that.

Radek cautiously stepped inside, his footsteps echoing as they bounced off the metal hull. Major Lorne's team had been attacked by unfriendly natives. The jumper had received several direct hits from their projectiles, resulting in minor damage to the CO2 scrubbers. It was barely even a hiccup and Radek could have easily sent someone else in to fix it, but… he didn't want to. He needed to fix it. He should have fixed it the last time, like he had told Rodney he had-

Radek forced those thoughts to the back of his mind as he got onto his knees and pried off the panel that protected the scrubbers. A simple fix. It didn't take more than twenty minutes.

Radek slid the panel back in place and stood up, shaking loose the pins and needles in his legs. He glanced around the ship, noting all the little details that he had never really bothered to pay attention to before. It was different now, though, because this was what the inside of Rodney's tomb looked like. He shivered in the cold air and looked out the windshield across the hangar bay. Something had changed, he no longer felt like he was alone. It was like someone was watching him.

"Rodney?" He whispered. Then, just to make sure, he said, "I've disproved several of your theories," and held his breath. If Rodney was there that more than anything would get him to talk.

He stood there as the seconds slowly ticked by, but there was nothing. Reluctantly, Radek left the hangar, angry at himself. He was being foolish and he knew it. He was acting like a child who refused to accept that Santa Claus was not real, even though he was much too old for such things. Just because he wanted it to be true, didn't mean it was going to change. Rodney was dead and he had killed him with his own stupidity. Radek sighed and looked down at his feet as he shuffled out. Perhaps he should see Dr. Heightmeyer.

Radek came to a quick stop, staring at the floor in confusion. There was a wet footprint on the floor. In fact, there were several, all of them the same size and with tread marks that matched the standard military boots all offworld teams received. A wild thought briefly whispered through his mind, asking him what shoes Rodney was wearing the day he died before Radek violently shoved that errant question from his mind. There was a logical explanation for this. Radek searched for the culprit, but there was no one around; the hall was completely deserted. Looking around Radek realized just where exactly he was and felt his heart skip a beat. He standing right outside the lab Rodney had quickly taken over and proclaimed his own like some tyrannical king. This was where he had worked on his own personal pet projects, a room that only those he deigned to give permission were allowed to enter. Now that Rodney was dead there should be no reason why anyone would be here. The wet prints led away from the lab and down the hall.

He felt like the dumb girl in one of those American horror movies that would always wander off and get herself killed, but still he just couldn't _not_ follow the footprints, now could he? He was a scientist; investigation was what he did.

The footprints led him to a side room where Radek quietly peeked around. He saw Sheppard sitting on the floor with his back against the wall and his knees draw up, one elbow resting against them and cradling his forehead like he had a headache. There was a box full of Rodney's things sitting beside him, the name "Jeannie Miller" scrawled across it along with an address. Radek couldn't see his face but he didn't need to; no matter how quiet the Colonel was, he could see how violently his shoulders shook as he cried without tears.

Radek slipped away.

* * *

"Are you sure you want to do this? It was a minor problem, no one needs to test it today," Major Lorne stated, giving Radek a weary glance as he flew the puddlejumper across the ocean.

"Yes, it does." His tone allowed for no argument. Lorne shrugged and turned back to the task at hand, leaving Radek to exorcise his own demons.

Radek looked out across the calm waters, mentally mapping out where Rodney's jumper lay. If they veered to the left about 40 degrees, they would be on top of it in fifteen minutes. He didn't say this out loud, however, and let Lorne continue on his own course.

He wondered if Rodney was lonely down there or if Griffon was good company. Radek shook his head, smiling wryly to himself. The man was dead and one day he won't have to remind himself of that. Dead people weren't lonely; they weren't anything, except for dead. Dr. Heightmeyer would claim he was projecting his own feelings onto Rodney and she'd be right. He was the one that was lonely. He hadn't even realized how much their friendship had meant to him, not until he was gone.

As he watched the sun slowly sink beneath the waves, back to its grave, he knew that there were no ghosts, no vengeful spirits. It was just him. It had always been him. He had just wanted his friend back, but it was time he stopped playing pretend.

Suddenly a warning popped up, alerting them to a technical malfunction. "What's wrong?" Radek demanded as he ran through the systems, searching the diagnostics.

"I don't know. The controls aren't responding." Lorne tried to wrestle control of the jumper, but no matter what he did they continued to sink slowly, steadily down towards the sea.

Radek shook his head, watching as the wide open waves grew larger with each passing second, filling the entire screen. The ocean was hungry for them. "Rodney," he murmured. "You are a spiteful bastard."

**Fin**


End file.
